Rational
by redireas
Summary: In a moment of weakness, Colin destroys his Harry collection…. A short, feelgood bit about unexpected friends.


**A/N: Who knows what inspired this one, but I have to thank everyone else who has written a Colin fanfic because I've realized that few people have yet to find their love for Colin. Or at least, they haven't expressed their love by posting, which is quite depressing if you ask me. He's a good character. Use it.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it. Nope. Nada.**

**Summary: In a moment of weakness, Colin destroys his Harry collection…. A short, feel-good bit about unexpected friends. **

**To Pick Up the Pieces**

In one swift angry motion, the entire contents of Colin's collection were spattered across his maroon bed sheets and toppling to the floor. Old photographs of Harry walking to class, buying a new quill, and eating a piece of toast lay amid strange artifacts such as dirty quidditch socks (well, one dirty sock… Colin had lost the other one while vacationing in Salisbury) and an old comb that Colin himself had heroically retrieved from Harry's bathroom during a dare.

And now, gritting his teeth in fury and tears in his eyes, he was fumbling for any piece of Harry he could reach and ripping it to shreds. He was stamping on Harry's old broom splinters and plucking apart his old quills. With each motion, he heard their voices. The voices of Slytherins yelling out at him in the corridors calling him _queer_ and _fag_. Colin's face grew hot and he pushed everything off of his bed in one last huff just as someone opened the door to the dormitory and shut it again, obviously annoyed.

Colin stood very still, a feat considering his insides were jumping crazily. He heard the person sigh from the other end of the room and felt his blood run cold. The sigh was definitely not male.

For a moment, Colin wondered if he should hide behind his bed until the girl went away but then a horrible thought occurred to him. What if she wasn't going to go away? What if she was waiting for someone? And then, Colin would be stuck behind his bed hearing things he most certainly did not want to be hearing with a stomach full of dinner. He shivered.

Nope. Best to just nip the gnome in the butt, as his father would always say.

"Err… Hello?"

The girl turned around and Colin let out a silent breath of air. It was okay. She was at least familiar and in the D.A. Party, or something was her name…

"Oh, hi." She said. She did look a bit embarrassed. "I didn't mean to just run in here or anything. It's just my friend, she's been getting on my nerves a lot lately and I just sort of needed to get away from her as fast as humanly possible."

She said this all very quickly, but she did sound apologetic. She paused as recognition hit. "Hey, you're the guy who collects all of Harry's stuff, right? Colin, right?"

Colin tried not to look disappointed, but his heart sank. He knew this conversation by heart from here on out and he wasn't really up for the teasing right now. He was just about to turn to leave the room when she continued, "I have something for you."

This wasn't exactly what he had been expecting. "What?" He asked.

"Remember the night when Harry kissed Ginny after the Quidditch game?" She fished through her bag for the something for Colin.

He nodded.

"Well," She said, proudly drawing a round bottle cap from her purse, "I was on cleanup crew. This was from his butterbeer that night."

Colin looked at the bottle cap and felt like crying.

"Is something wrong?" She asked, seeing his face. "I'm sorry. Look, if you don't want it…"

"No, I just…" What could he say? _Just before you walked in I threw a hissy fit and dismantled my famous collection with my bare hands_?

Without really anything to explain, he said the one thing he wanted to. "Thanks."

The girl smiled. She looked pretty like that, with her hair tied back. "You've looked kind of sad at the meetings lately. I figured you could use a pick-me-up." She sighed and leaned against the wall and muttered under her breath, "Merlin knows I could."

There was a silence at the awkwardness of this. Two people of the opposite sex in a dorm room… alone… in the near darkness…

"I didn't mean…"

"I know."

There was a silence again.

"I should get going." The girl said and touched his shoulder slightly with her purse. Colin just stood there, running his fingers over the butterbeer cap and feeling it under his skin. He wanted his collection back now, but in a different way. He didn't want a stupid childish shrine to his stupid childish hero. He wanted his collection back because… what was he without it? But was it worth it? Was it worth it to live through constant verbal battering because you looked up to Harry Potter? "You shouldn't listen to them, Colin."

Her voice startled him. She was looking at him from the door, holding her bag on her hip and framed by the light outside.

"I know."

She smiled and started to leave.

"Hey, Party?" Colin said on some unknown burst of spontaneity.

Parvati turned and quirked an eyebrow, but didn't say anything to the contrary.

"Thanks again."

"No problem Colin."

And Colin, butterbeer cap in tow, wobbled back to his bedside to see if maybe this time he had the strength to pick up the pieces.

**A/N: Ta da. It wasn't spectacular, I know, but I did feel like it was somewhat satisfying. **


End file.
